Is The State Of Maine Going To Lose Money On Lobster Sales

Tom Casamassa of Saco motors out to his lobster boat, the Theresa Irene Three, in fog on Wednesday morning. Under a federal bailout program appear Wednesday, Maine fishermen are eligible for 50 cents for every pound of lobster they brought to marketplace last year. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Maine lobster fishermen are about to get a $50 meg federal bailout to first the crippling touch on of the United States-Cathay merchandise war.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on Wednesday the cosmos of a $527 one thousand thousand seafood merchandise relief program that will pay licensed fishermen a species-specific amount for every pound landed in 2019 to absorb sales declines and increased marketing costs caused by Communist china's retaliatory tariffs. The individual payout is capped at $250,000.

The rate of payout per species varies, depending on how much regulators calculated the market was hurt by the Chinese tariffs, ranging from every bit little as a penny a pound for the massive national pollock fishery to equally much as 76 cents per pound for the small geoduck fishery, a large saltwater clam harvested in the Northwest that had been very popular in the Chinese marketplace.

In Maine, where lobster is king, fishermen can net 50 cents for every pound of Maine'due south signature crustacean they brought to market last yr, the second-highest payout rate of the xix eligible species. Maine landed almost 101 million pounds of lobster in 2019, valued at $485.4 million. If every pound qualified, Maine lobstermen could land more than than $l one thousand thousand in seafood trade relief.

"Many nations accept non played by the rules for a long time, and President Trump is the beginning president to stand upward to them and transport a clear message that the Us will no longer tolerate unfair trade practices," U.S. Agronomics Secretarial assistant Sonny Perdue said in a prepared argument Midweek.

"The Seafood Trade Relief Programme ensures fishermen and other U.S. producers will not stand lonely in facing unjustified retaliatory tariffs while President Trump continues working to solidify meliorate and stronger trade deals around the globe," added Perdue, who was tasked with finding a way to help lobstermen after Trump visited Maine in June.

The state'due south biggest lobster trade grouping, the Maine Lobstermen'south Clan, said Tuesday it was looking forward to the financial relief for its members. In a prepared argument Wednesday, Patrice McCarron, the association'southward director, thanked the Trump administration for its leadership and thanked Maine's congressional delegation for its long-standing support of the industry.

"Maine'southward hardworking lobstermen did not create these trade issues, but for besides long, have had to live with the consequences," she said. "Lobstermen have been doing all they can to proceed their businesses viable merely to be met with weakened markets in 2020 due to the pandemic. Federal relief will aid keep Maine's fishermen solvent and then they may go along following their proud traditions."

The residuum of Maine's seafood supply concatenation, such every bit lobster dealers and processors, isn't eligible for a bailout under the new programme, fifty-fifty though that was the segment of Maine's industry that suffered the most from the merchandise war. Maine lobstermen did well in 2019, earning a whopping $4.82 per pound, the highest since Maine began tracking lobster hauls in 1880.

Even the lobstermen themselves have questioned the impact of the Chinese tariffs on their lives. In 2018, when Communist china levied the first round of lobster tariffs, the MLA's president, Cutler lobsterman Kristan Porter, told Maine Public Radio that a dent in sales to China would exist unlikely to hurt dock prices. "It's not one of the bigger problems facing us correct now," Porter said at the time.

The Maine Lobster Dealers Association is "extremely disappointed" in the new plan, said its director, Annie Tselikis. The human activity of exporting isn't washed by fishermen, but past the six,000 people in the lobster supply chain that grade, market, process, sell, pack and send Maine lobster around the world. The supply side of the industry lonely is valued at $1 billion a year, she said.

"This hurting has been felt by alive lobster wholesalers and lobster processors, non by commercial lobster fishermen," Tselikis said. "While we do appreciate recognition of the seafood industry at a time when we are facing many challenges domestically and internationally, we believe the USDA has failed the U.South. lobster industry past not allocating funds to the supply concatenation."

But dealers and processors stand to proceeds the most from terminal month's announcement of a proposed U.S.-EU merchandise bargain that would eliminate the eight to xx percent tariff on U.S. lobster sold into Europe, which had traditionally been ane of Maine's largest lobster export markets, and eliminate the trade reward that Canada had enjoyed since signing a costless trade bargain with Europe in 2017.

In June, during a meeting with fishermen in Bangor, Trump highlighted the loftier-profile role that U.South. lobster is playing in the U.S.-China merchandise war, besides as the U.South. political landscape, past promising his administration would force China to honor its commitment to buy U.S. seafood, especially Maine lobster. He also promised trade relief to the manufacture.

He directed Perdue to include lobster in any futurity federal bailouts intended for farmers hurt by the trade war – much like America has done for cotton fiber, corn and soybean farmers – and ordered U.South. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to typhoon monthly reports on China'southward efforts, and its progress in meeting its stage-one promises to buy more U.S. lobster.

Before the tariff, Communist china was the biggest overseas buyer of U.Due south. lobster, with its growing middle class consuming $128.v million of the lucky-cerise status symbol in 2017. The U.S. was on stride to triple its exports to Mainland china before lobster was added to that nation'south tariff hitting list in July 2018.

The retaliatory tariffs of 25 per centum and then 30 percentage that People's republic of china levied on U.S. lobster imports sent Chinese buyers to Canada, which sells the same species of lobster without the same cost-busting tariffs. As a issue, the lobster merchandise from the U.S. to China collapsed, from $86.9 million in the first six months of 2018 to $26.ane 1000000 in the same stretch of 2020.

The touch on of the pandemic on global seafood markets is partly to blame. International sales of U.S. lobster are down 47 percentage through June, from $114.3 meg in 2019 to $60.half-dozen million in 2020. But no other land is obligated to buy U.S. lobster like Prc. In January, every bit part of a mini merchandise deal, People's republic of china vowed to buy $36 billion in U.S. agricultural goods over the next two years.

Lobster was the but seafood that specifically made it onto People's republic of china'south mandatory agricultural shopping list.

Cathay tin't make its huge, fast-growing middle form rekindle its love affair with U.Due south. lobster. Instead, information technology has offered a tariff exemption to those importers who want to buy U.S. lobster again, making information technology no more costly to bring into the land than Canadian lobster. But the trade data show the exemption isn't working, at least not yet.

That is where the Seafood Trade Relief Program comes into play. Licensed commercial fishermen can utilize through their local Farm Service Agency service heart starting on Monday. They don't have to show a personal loss, just must have proof of their 2019 landings of an impacted species, proof of adjusted gross income, tax ID number and direct eolith information.

The deadline for applications is Dec. 14.

The but other Maine fishery of any size included in the trade relief species list is herring. In 2019, Maine landed well-nigh thirteen million pounds of herring, most of which was sold domestically for lobster bait. With a payout rate of 4 cents per pound, Maine'south herring fishermen could net a combined $525,000 through the program.

Maine commercial fishermen landed 3.3 meg pounds of groundfish in 2019, including but not limited to pollock and flounder, both of which are eligible for the federal trade relief payments. Just the state doesn't make the landings for private ground fish species public, and then it is difficult to say how much the program could aid Maine'southward struggling groundfishing fleet.

Source: https://www.pressherald.com/2020/09/09/feds-to-pay-maine-lobstermen-50-million-to-offset-trade-war-losses/

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